Review: Bad Boys: Ride or Die

Bad Boys: Ride or Die is the fourth in the buddy-cop franchise starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. Does it have the same magic 30 years after the first episode?Bad Boys: Ride or Die is the fourth in the buddy-cop franchise starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. Does it have the same magic 30 years after the first episode?Watch the movie trailer here.Opinion-makers are united in the view that former biggest star in the world Will Smith needs to pull something out of the hat.In this case it's the fourth Bad Boys with Martin Lawrence - Ride or Die.The original Bad Boys was concocted by the bad boys of Hollywood - producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson and director Michael Bay - to cash in on the success of the then biggest stars on TV - comedians Will Smith and Martin Lawrence.The latest, with only Bruckheimer on board this time, seems to be designed to rehabilitate the reputation of Smith after his, shall we say, patchy experience at the Oscars last year.Getting an Oscar for King Richard and being virtually cancelled in the space of about an hour is no mean feat.But to the credit of the bigwigs of Sony Pictures, they're now prepared to throw everything at the comeback film Ride or Die."Ride or die" - for people who can't be bothered looking it up - means two people who are very loyal to each other, apparently.Like long-time cop buddies Mike and Marcus - Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. Mike's task is to keep Marcus on a diet.Marcus is distracted - first by a greasy hotdog, then by a robbery in progress.Fortunately Mike is, er, Ride Or Die and takes care of business, thus establishing the tone.Speaking of establishing the tone, I should point out there's rather more swearing than I expected. Will Smith was famously one of the clean hiphop rappers, before he turned into a family-friendly TV and movie star.Still, bad boys, what you gonna do?Anyway no sooner has Mike married the lovely Kelly when news comes out that their old Captain - who got killed in the last Bad Boys movie - has been accused of being corrupt - or as they invariably say in this sort of film "dirty".This is a shock to Captain Howard's daughter Josie and grand-daughter Callie. Kelly... Callie... I got confused too, particularly when one of them gets kidnapped.Mike and Marcus are also distraught. The Captain, after all, was like a father to them.Which may have given the producers to borrow from Hamlet. The ghost of Captain Howard sends them a message from beyond the grave.Corruption in the Miami Police Force? Surely not. Is it Kelly? Or possible Callie?…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details